“Reading and writing are acts of empathy and faith. Guard that trust carefully — in this rapidly changing business, it’s the only sure thing.” ~Erin Keane

"Never give up. And most importantly, be true to yourself. Write from your heart, in your own voice, and about what you believe in." ~ Louise Brown

"Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it." ~Jesse Stuart

"A writer's job is to take one thing and make it stand for twenty." ~ Virginia Woolf

Thursday, September 27, 2012

How to Sell an Ebook the Old-fashioned Way

Today we have Helena Halme, sharing a very helpful idea she implemented for marketing her novel:

First I’d like to thank Karen for letting
me be a guest on her wonderful blog to talk about my novel, The Englishman, a love
story between a Nordic student and a British Naval officer.

When I published my book for Kindle earlier this month, I thought: Who is this book really aimed at? The answer
came to me immediately – commuters with e-readers. I knew my readership, but I
urgently needed a way to make them aware of the book and encourage them to read
it.

I live in a creative part of North London,
and decided a leafleting campaign would be the ideal way to reach my core
readership. So I asked my cover designer, Simon Wilder, to design a leaflet.
Armed with a stack of them, I went out early one the morning to talk to
commuters at bus stops and tube stations, handing out leaflets and telling
people to read my novel.

Advertising would have been prohibitively
expensive and, besides, it’s a rather detached, impersonal way to sell books. I
was keen to adopt a more personal approach to get the word out.

The leafleting was an incredibly positive
experience. People were very friendly, especially when I told them I was the
writer. I’d printed a short excerpt from the book at the back of the leaflet and
my only slightly wobbly moment came when, standing by a particularly long queue
at Crouch End Broadway bus stop at about 8 am, I saw 20 or so people, all
reading my words.

Occasionally someone would glance back at me. That made me
feel a little exposed – as a first time novelist, it was quite scary to
actually watch people read your work!

The
Englishman is a ‘will they, won’t they’ love story
between a Finnish student and British naval officer. It started off as a series
of posts on my blog, Helena’s
London Life, after my readers asked me how I came to be in England. The
posts grew so popular, that I decided to turn them into a fully-fledged novel.

In
1980, Peter and Kaisa meet under the bright lights of the British Embassy and
share kisses under the statue of the Finnish poet, Eino Leino. But they live
hundreds of miles apart and at the height of the Cold War Peter chases Russian
submarines while Kaisa is stuck in a country friendly with the Soviet Union.
Will their love go the distance?

So why did I choose to publish digitally
rather than take the more traditional print book publishing route? Well, I’ve
had a few ‘close calls’ with literary agents and publishers in the past, but
blogging has given me such a lot of confidence in my writing, that I decided I
could do it myself. I’m also a bit of control freak and like the fact that
there are no middle men between me and the readers. Besides, ebook publishing
did well for E L James and her book Fifty
Shades of Grey, so why not me?

However, being an independent publisher doesn’t
mean you can cut corners. The Englishman
has been professionally edited and proof-read, and the cover was designed by an
experienced and talented graphic artist, Simon Wilder.

While still carrying on with the leafleting
(I might go to the West End next!), I’m also working on a second novel, Pappa’s Girl, about a Finnish immigrant
family in Stockholm, to be published on Kindle later this
autumn.

what a wonderful idea. This has been most interesting to read. People pass out literature all the time at stops like this or downtown New York, but wouldn't it be great to receive a taste of a novel like this. Great idea and best luck Helena with your novel.

Thank you everybody for you lovely comments. I stopped leafleting for a while and my sales dropped straight away, so I know it works! I think the fact that I can say I'm a local author helps, as does the fact that I've done the leafleting in a creative community.

Thank you again Karen, for letting me 'take over' your blog for a day.

Helena, I like how you targeted your specific demographic so carefully and then chose the best way to reach them. Even choosing a creative, open community environment for your leaflet-sharing rather than one that might be suspicious of you.

Wahoo! I was just here, and then came back--and the header picture has changed to a Wasatch autumn. Lovely!

This is for Helena: I've tried TEN times to get through the captchas on the comments to leave a comment....and STILL can read one correctly. So I'll say here what I was trying to say over there....

Your book sounds wonderful. And with your confidence I think you'll do great with self-marketing. I wish you great success. I'm now heading over to Amazon to check it out. (p.s. I have SO many lovely London blogger friends, Old Kitty and Hilary Melton-Butcher being at the top of the list!!! I love Old Kitty's exclamation points!)

Please stay and make yourself at home. I made cookies.

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My Books

My self-help memoir now available in print and ebook

How to Eat Like a Normal Person and Still Lose Weight

Helena Carr is finally ready to live. But first she's got to wake up from her coma.

"Gowen guides her readers into a world rich with difficulties and limitations, yet leads them through the trials to a wonderfully satisfying ending.... I strongly encourage this book for anyone looking for a unique and uplifting book." --The Road to a Dream

Actually, this IS your mother's cookbook....

"The best dumplings recipe ever! They actually melt in your mouth light and fuffy! Well written recipes that have stood the test of time. One if my favorite new cook books. So far every recipe is a keeper."

A novel about love, marriage and divorce, not necessarily in that order

"What a wonderful book about enduring love. A truly inspiring book about the trials and tribulations of a marriage. The characters are engrossing and the storylines inspiring."

Take a peek inside the lives of a real Mormon family

"I just loved the central character, Marcie. She's a young mother, trying to do her best for her family but who often is overwhelmed by life - like the rest of us. I loved the spirituality that is an integral part of this Mormon family's life."

#2 in my Diamond series "Steel Magnolias with Mormon characters"

"Gowen has an amazing talent for rich and meaningful prose. The moment you open the first page you are captivated by her writing style. Through her narrator she gets into a conversation with you and it feels as though her characters are letting you in on their deepest thoughts and feelings. I was so pleasantly surprised by how deeply I enjoyed this book, it was a real treasure."